Street Corner – June 2013

It starts soon! Take your pick from the eight amazing Road Tours below and join Jerry Dixey, the AMSOIL/STREET RODDER ’51 Ford Road Tour car (built at Honest Charley Garage in Chattanooga, Tennessee), and a caravan of enthusiastic Road Tourians as our annual “show on the road” moves back and forth across the United States, visiting some of the country’s top shops and manufacturers, participating in some of the greatest car shows, and filling the in-between time with cruising, camaraderie, and fun you’ll remember forever. Whew! But it can only happen if you participate. Go to Streetrodder.com or call the Road Tour Hotline at (800) 664-1362 to register.

June 13-23: Aeromotive Road Tour

NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to MSRA Back to the 50’s Weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota

The Aeromotive Tour kicks off at the NHRA Bowling Green Hot Rod Reunion in Kentucky and heads to the Kansas City area headquarters of Aeromotive for a big get-together on Monday, June 17. Our stops along the way to the huge 40th Back to the 50’s Weekend in St. Paul will include Yogi’s Inc. and the facilities of QA1, among many others.

July 12-21: Eastwood Summer Classic Road Tour

Eastwood Summer Classic, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, to Syracuse Nationals in Syracuse, New York

We are again kicking off our Road Tour to the Syracuse Nationals at Eastwood, which has become a popular summer get-together. This is sure to be a fun weekend in the Pottstown area as we visit the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey and some cool private car collections. We will then be on our way to the big event in Syracuse.

The NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus is the perfect place to start our Road Tour to Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It will be a great trip across mid-America and will include an amazing visit to the Smith Collection of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska. We will arrive at the salt in time for tech inspection and get to see a full day of speed record attempts at the holy ground of Bonneville.

After our weekend at Bonneville, we will head east to the gigantic Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit. After stops in Cheyenne, Omaha, and the Chicago area, we’ll arrive in Detroit with plenty of time to visit many of the great automotive-related destinations that Motor City has to offer. Then on Saturday we will have front-row seats and great parking at the largest special-interest vehicle event in the country.

The Triple Crown Challenge:

Three back-to-back-to-back tours that will test both vehicles and participants

Sept. 1-8: Vintage Air Road Tour

Vintage Air headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, to Shades of the Past in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Every year, Rick Love and Jack Chisenhall put together one of the largest Road Tours of the summer. This year, we will roll out from San Antonio on Labor Day weekend. On our way to the popular Shades of the Past event in Pigeon Forge, our visits will include the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham; Alan Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop in Gadsden, Alabama; and Honest Charley Garage in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Sept. 8-15: Shades of the Past Road Tour

Shades of the Past in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to NSRA Nationals North in Kalamazoo, Michigan

After the fun at the Shades event in Pigeon Forge, we will travel to the NSRA Nationals North Plus in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Along the way, we will stop in Louisville and Indianapolis. We will also pay a visit to Troy Trepanier at Rad Rides by Troy, the cool Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana, and the RV and Motor Home Museum in Elkhart. From there it will be on to the popular NSRA event in Kalamazoo.

Sept. 15-22: Easy Street Speed and Kustom Road Tour

NSRA Nationals North in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Charlotte Auto Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina

After the weekend in Kalamazoo, our sites will be set on the city of Charlotte and the Auto Fair at the Speedway. We will spend all day Monday in Cincinnati as we visit Soffseal’s headquarters. That evening, everyone is invited to a big party at Easy Street Speed and Kustom. From there it will be onto Charlotte with visits at Jet-Hot Coating, Dennis Carpenter Ford Restoration Parts, and Fatman Fabrications.

Our season wraps up again in the State of California with the Sherm’s Custom Plating Tour, kicking things off at the Sherm’s Custom Plating facility in Sacramento. We will be guests at a party held in our honor at the home of Sherm’s President Gary Matranga. Then it is onto Santa Rosa and the famous hot rod shops and private collections of the San Francisco Bay area. After a drive down Pacific Coast Highway, we will visit the famous Hearst Castle before arriving in Bakersfield for the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway.

Rocky Mountain Rod & Custom Car Show

Mayabb Designs Award for Colorado Car Show

Darrell Mayabb, illustrator, designer, and STREET RODDER contributor, has produced a magnificent trophy for the Rocky Mountain Rod & Custom Car Show. The “Crème de la Chrome Award” made its debut at the 2012 event in Denver.

Mayabb, a Colorado resident, was an obvious choice as the trophy’s designer. “We are fortunate to have such remarkable talent available to us,” Joe Haska said, founder of Greybeard Promotions Inc., which owns the show.

Several Denver-based companies and individuals joined Mayabb in building the trophy. Mayabb recreated the Statue of Liberty star design in the top portion of the wooden base. The topknot is a 20-inch custom car finished in chrome. Hans Reuters sculpted the car and its base. Jimmy Flintstone made a mold to reproduce the car in two sizes. The 8-foot original will bear engraved plaques with the names of the winners, who will receive reduced-sized replicas.

Inside Hot Rodding

The Tex Smith Autobiography

Inside Hot Rodding is a brand-new book chronicling the life and times of LeRoi “Tex” Smith and the hot rod hobby that no one knows better. Not only was Tex one of STREET RODDER magazine’s founding fathers, he has an insider’s viewpoint on virtually every corner of rodding—the magazines, NHRA, NSRA, Goodguys, clubs, racing, the explosive growth of street rodding, and the businesses that have grown up around the hobby. This no-holds-barred book is full of the kinds of things few of us know, and no one knows better than Tex.

This limited-edition book is being privately sold on a pre-order basis, so reserve yours early. For the inside scoop on our hobby, send $50 to Tex Smith AutoBio, P. O. Box 547, Driggs, ID 83422. Or you can use your credit card by calling Tex Smith at (800) 513-8133.

The Motor Press Guild

Greg Sharp Receives the Dean Batchelor Award

The Motor Press Guild (MPG), the largest automotive media association in North America, recently presented Greg Sharp with a Dean Batchelor Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism. The Dean Batchelor Award, established by MPG in 1995, is presented in commemoration of the standard of excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry. Sharp, curator of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsport Museum, was recognized for his editorial piece, “The World’s Fastest Hot Rod”, published in the Spring ’12 issue of The Rodder’s Journal. The article explores Dan Webb’s recreation of the historic Xydias and Batchelor SO-CAL Speed Shop streamliner.

As Director of NHRA Historical Services, Sharp played a key role in the formation of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum and has served as curator since it opened to the public in April 1998. His colorful prose and attention to historical detail can be read in the Museum’s Reunion programs as well as in its exhibits. “It’s an incredible honor to receive the Dean Batchelor Award,” Sharp said. “Dean was one of those people I looked up to and read about as a kid. I got to know both Dean and his partner Alex Xydias in the early ’70s. Although he probably didn’t realize it, he was my mentor and made a tremendous impact on me, especially in striving for accuracy in historical writing. To win an award named for him, for an article about something he and Alex achieved over 60 years ago, is just overwhelming.”